Cooke wins first World Cup Series title with new world record

Budapest, Hungary, 12 May 2013 - After placing the fastest time in the pool in the second event of the Men's Final at World Cup #4 in Budapest, Hungary, Great Britain's Jamie Cooke recorded a perfect ride to find himself in fourth position overall with just the combined to go. It simply was his day as some sublime shooting, which included a world record, put him on his way to his maiden victory in a World Cup Series event.

The 22-year-old was near-flawless with his pistol, in four rounds his accuracy was at 83% as he only needed 24 shots to find the target 20 times. It was truly world class. In the second round of shooting, he did not miss once, hitting the target five times in 8.22 seconds to set a new world record. Looking back on his Final, the stats were frightening, 1:55:88 in the pool, a maximum 1200 points in the ride, and the fastest pace around the combined event in a blistering time of 11:18:75.

"Adam Marosi was awesome all day. It's amazing. This is my first World Cup medal, so I am so happy. My shooting was definitely the key today, I kept thinking 'don't mess this up', but I didn't. It was scary towards the end with Marosi just behind me, but as I approached the finish I knew I would get there. I never thought I would do this after the fencing this morning, but I had a good swim, a good ride, a good combined, so am just so happy", said the Brit.

Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, added, "This was a fantastic conclusion to the four World Cups this year and a good start to the Rio Olympic cycle for us. It was an amazing performance by Jamie and a massive milestone for Pentathlon GB. He seemed to be fearless in the combined event today. It was the hardest World Cup this year, all the top athletes were competing here, but it all came together for Jamie."

Jamie Cooke now holds three Modern Pentathlon records, with his fastest single heat shoot added to the records he holds in the 200m swim in both 25m and 50m pools. (The shooting record can be seen in the image left, supplied by Simpower, UIPM Official laser target supplier for the World Cup Series)

Adam Marosi, who was king of the ride and the first out of the blocks for the combined, was outstanding and on any other day, would have brought home the gold, but he could not match the speed of Cooke in the shooting range, and the Hungarian star had to settle for silver.

France had four men in the Final, one more than any other nation, and it was a real tour de force by the team as the quartet placed third, fourth, fifth and fourteenth. Jean Maxcence Berrou claimed the bronze whilst his teammates Valentin Prades and Christopher Patte were fourth and fifth respectively.

Sam Weale of Great Britain came in sixth in his first appearance on the international circuit since the London 2012 Olympic Games. After holding top spot going into the riding event, South Korea's Jinhwa Jung finished tenth whilst Michal Sedlecky of Czech Republic, the day's best fencer, came in in 19th position.

Tomorrow sees the Mixed Relay take place in the final day of competition